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The Adderbury Dances
All the dances that the Adderbury Village Morris Men perform originate from the village. They were collected by Janet Blunt in the early 1900’s whilst she was living at her family home 'Le Halle Place', which is situated at the top of Manor Road in the west of Adderbury.
The vast majority of the dances were recorded by Miss Blunt from an old dancer and former publican in the village by the name of William ‘Binx’ Walton.
The picture on the left is William "Binx" Walton demonstrating a stick dance, with the maids of the house making up the set, in the garden of Miss Janet Blunt's Manor House (Le Halle Place) in the early 1900's.
The picture on the right shows "Binx" Walton's younger brother John demonstrating a handkerchief dance with the maids of the house again making up the set.
It is possible that this picture was taken after Binx had died as John Walton was also used as a source of information for the dances.
There are four types of dances in the Adderbury tradition, many of which take their names from the tunes. These categories are:-
Some dancers also perform jigs, which were originally danced to give a majority of the dancers a rest.
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With thanks to Robert Cooke of Adderbury for loan of photo's from his family albums. |
